Research & reports

Exzolvildres Queiroz Neto, Gilson Brandão de Oliveira Junior, Marcelha Silva de Andrade, Suncar Dabo, Geisiane Michelle Zanquetta de Pintor · LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) · Brazil

This article presents reflections on the practice of Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture (AUP) and its impact on land use and occupation in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil. The research raised several questions concerning rural-urban dynamics, the specificities of urban family farmers, and the complexity of land use in the municipality. Diagnostic results from a semi-structured research guide will be used as an empirical basis for further reflection, and the abstract does not state specific research findings or critical findings regarding governance.

Mitchell McLarnon · Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education · Canada

This paper described and analyzed the social relations emerging from an adult education internship and community-based garden project in Montreal, Canada. Using institutional ethnography, it uncovered how adult education internships in community gardens and gardening programming can produce disproportionate outcomes for adult learners, community workers, and community members. It elucidated that specific institutional contrivances, such as funding, policy, work processes, and discourse, structure and define who experiences access to gardens, gardening, its ostensible health and well-being benefits, and adult education.

Martin Bailkey, Rosalind Greenstein · Urban agriculture · United States

This paper reviews “Farming Inside Cities: Entrepreneurial Urban Agriculture in the United States” (2000) by Jerry Kaufman and Martin Bailkey. This report was one of three concurrent research studies on for-market urban agriculture as a viable reuse of vacant land in major US cities. While its practical nature and description of urban agriculture's opportunities and challenges remain relevant today, it does not explicitly state the value of farming as a vehicle for social equity and food justice in urban communities of color.

Domenic Vitiello · Urban agriculture · United States

US cities have developed urban agriculture support systems reflecting competing values, with some prioritizing public good and others economic gains. A chapter reflecting on urban agriculture planning in Chicago and Philadelphia notes that institutional structures significantly impact equity and justice. The study indicates that the existing urban agriculture support systems in these cities may not adequately promote equity and justice.

Belinda Li, Tammara Soma, Raghava Payment, Srishti Kumar, Nicole Anderson, Flora Xu, Phonpoom Piensatienkul · Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l alimentation · Canada

This study reviewed and categorized 73 food asset maps in Canada based on their included food assets and design characteristics. Most maps included built environment assets like grocery stores and food banks, as well as agriculture-based natural food assets such as farms, community gardens, and orchards. However, representations of Indigenous-focused food assets and non-agriculture-based natural food assets like forests, water bodies, and foraging areas were generally lacking. This lack of Indigenous perspectives reinforces the values of a settler-colonial food system within food asset maps.

Delf Rothe · Political Geography · United States (New York City)

This paper critically examines the concept of "green resilience" through a case study of various green resilience projects in New York City, including survivor trees, memorial groves, and community gardens. The study argues that these spaces function as key forms of state rule and biopolitical power, identifying three tensions or contradictions of green resilience as a form of biopolitical government: visibility and invisibility, knowledge and ignorance, and control and emergence.

Deyvison Lopes de Siqueira, Albér Carlos Alves Santos, Bruno Jesus do Nascimento, Gustavo Henrique Cepolini Ferreira · Revista da ANPEGE · Brazil

This article reviews the role of urban agriculture in improving food and nutritional security for vulnerable populations in Brazil, where 33.1 million people lacked guaranteed daily food in 2022. It highlights urban gardens as an alternative to enhance access to healthy food. The study suggests that maps, data, and strengthened public policies can promote urban gardens as food cultivation spaces in urban and peri-urban areas, forming networks to combat hunger.

Joshua Zeunert · UNSWorks (University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia) · United States

To investigate the economic potential of urban agriculture in existing public green spaces, gross economic returns per hectare from horticultural crops were calculated from eight sources and fourteen growing approaches. Findings showed returns ranging from $22,249 to $360,000 USD per hectare annually, with several small urban agriculture businesses achieving gross returns of $150,000-$300,000 per hectare. The study concludes that urban agriculture in existing public green spaces offers opportunities to increase economic viability, alongside additional benefits like job creation, local food availability, education, training, health, and environmental improvements.

Moses Wanyakha, Nancy Grudens‐Schuck, Ann M. Oberhauser · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · United States (Iowa)

This study investigated resilience and vulnerabilities in fresh produce donation partnership programs to food pantries in Iowa during the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings revealed a significant decrease in labor hours during the pandemic years of 2020–2021, attributed to government policies and social distancing requirements. Volunteer shortages, donation inconsistency, and exclusionary community practices appeared to be inherent vulnerabilities of volunteer-based food donation programs.

Matthew L. Richardson, John Taylor, Megan J. Thompson, Anusuya Rangarajan, Mamatha Hanumappa, Neith G. Little · PLoS ONE · United States (Northeastern United States)

This online survey of 394 urban growers, primarily in the Northeastern United States, profiled growers and assessed urban agriculture's state, identifying needs and challenges. Most growers were white (non-Hispanic), under 45, well-educated but without agriculture degrees. Urban agriculture was dominated by small non-profits and home/community gardens. A critical finding is that urban growers face diverse barriers, with the most common being land availability and long-term access in urban areas, and many reported low revenue or operating at a net loss.

Luiza Vigne Bennedetti, Silvia Ronchi, Maurí­cio Lamano Ferreira, Fabiano Lemes de Oliveira · Sustainability · Brazil (São Paulo)

This study assessed São Paulo's urban agriculture (UA) potential using an Ecosystem Services (ES)-based approach, combining ES spatial mapping and a producer survey at 49 UA sites. Results showed natural habitats and anthropic areas within urbanized land, especially in the south, with high habitat quality scores. Nine ES were identified: food supply, commercialization, income generation, waste mediation, lifecycle maintenance, soil formation, leisure/social, well-being, and education.

Landon Yoder, Sarah P. Church, Kamebry Wagner · Society & Natural Resources · United States

This paper analyzed the role of watershed organizations in Iowa, USA, in addressing urban-agricultural conflicts stemming from fertilizer runoff and water quality impairment. Three focus group discussions with 14 watershed coordinators revealed that participant composition significantly impacts problem-solving. While joint urban-agricultural engagement strategies were limited, they showed promise in changing individual perspectives, suggesting that strategic targeting of participants is crucial for conflict resolution.

Nevin Cohen, Michael H. Stein, Annie Hancock, Alfonso Morales · Urban agriculture · United States

This paper examined two housing authority-led urban agriculture projects in New York City and Denver, Colorado, highlighting their multidimensional benefits such as skill-building and community cohesion. While these projects improved residents' daily experiences, the study noted that social problems persist despite new interactions. The analysis emphasized the need to consider both stated and implicit goals in urban agriculture ethics, acknowledging that attempts to harmonize competing claims are at the root of urban agriculture practices.

Rosângela Míriam Lemos Oliveira Mendonça, Samantha de Oliveira Nery, Ediméia Maria Ribeiro de Mello · MIX Sustentável · Brazil

This paper presents a methodology applicable to sustainable community actions, developed from seven years of experience with low-income communities in a Brazilian community garden. The methodology is based on participatory action research, systemic design, agroecology, food sovereignty, and solidarity economy principles. The study demonstrates the importance of integrated work among the elements of the quintuple helix model (society, government, industry, academia, and environment), but it does not detail specific challenges or limitations regarding governance.

Pamela Arnette Broom, Yuki Kato, Shawn “Pepper” Roussel · Humanity & Society · United States

This article examines the history of urban gardening by Black communities in New Orleans, United States. It uses oral history to complement official documentation, demonstrating that Black New Orleanians historically grew their own food for collective efficacy and to pass on horticultural knowledge. The study notes that most new gardens since 2010 lack cultural and social connection to this history.

Carol E. Ramos-Gerena, Allison DeHonney, Shireen Guru, Rachel Grandits, Insha Akram, Samina Raja · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · United States

This article examines the Seeding East Buffalo Fellowship (SEBF) program, co-founded by community and academic organizations in Buffalo, NY in 2022, which supported residents of Buffalo's Black neighborhoods in growing their own food, emerging as urban agriculture leaders, and engaging in urban agriculture policy advocacy. The authors, who are co-founders or team members of SEBF, draw on field notes and qualitative interviews with SEBF growers to reflect on lessons from this pilot program. Key lessons for policy change identified are that programs must be rooted in community history, pedagogical strategies must be tailored to local context, and long-term relationships must be fostered.

Adriana Martins da Silva Bastos Conceição, Márcia Bento Moreira, Hélder Ribeiro Freitas · Peer Review · Brazil

A study in the Território de Identidade do Vale do Jiquiriçá, Bahia, Brazil surveyed municipal agriculture-department professionals through an online questionnaire (stages I and III) and field research (stage II). Online questionnaires initially identified only 12 urban and peri-urban agriculture experiences, but field visits raised that count to 62 active experiences. Stage III data showed professionals lack understanding of the urban agriculture concept and its potential, and that the legal provisions regulating the practice need much wider dissemination for implementation; the data indicate that urban agriculture in the territory's municipalities goes largely unnoticed and is not addressed in public policy.

Kimberley Hodgson · Urban agriculture · United States

A critical examination of urban agriculture governance in Seattle, Washington, USA, tracing the geographic, social, agricultural and governmental context of city policy. Seattle established its P-Patch community gardening program in 1973, and grassroots and community organizations have worked on food production and food security since the early 1970s, but the city government did not begin systemic policy engagement until the early 2000s. Using a critical lens, the chapter examines key policies - including urban agriculture zoning regulations and the Local Food Action Plan - and projects such as the Rainier Beach Urban Farm & Wetlands Project, to assess the impact of urban agriculture policy on racial, social and health equity.

Lydia Bonney · · United States

Drawing on newspaper articles, books, scholarly journals, websites and one self-conducted interview, this paper examines several urban agriculture programs across Detroit's history. Analysis of past successes and failures of these programs argues that investing in urban agriculture today could address problems the city has long faced. The paper concludes that Detroit's particular landscape, community, and spatial disparities give it potential to become a world leader in urban agriculture.

Samina Raja, Subhashni Raj, Carol E. Ramos-Gerena · Urban agriculture · United States

This book chapter, part of a volume honoring urban planning scholar Jerome Kaufman's legacy, examines the extent to which local, regional and metropolitan governments in the United States engage with urban agriculture policy through an equity-centered, ethically grounded lens, summarizing a collection of perspectives on municipal policy from scholars and policy practitioners nationwide. While urban agriculture has become increasingly recognized as a space for local government engagement since Kaufman's call to action, the authors conclude that municipal governments continue to struggle to center questions of equity and ethics in their policymaking, even as they claim a progressive approach toward urban agriculture.

Miriam Elizabeth Mery-Ruiz, Gabriela Carmona Ochoa, Areli Lopez-Montelongo · Apple Academic Press eBooks · Mexico

Focusing on the Alameda Zaragoza district in Saltillo, Mexico, this study investigates the relationship between urban morphology and sustainability in the built environment. It used an ethnographic methodology involving qualitative social media research, collecting images and text through Microsoft Bing word searches and analyzing them with nubedepalabras software to identify semantic networks. The findings show that online communities' urban imaginaries offer insights into sustainability strategies, and the study recommends expanding the analysis to other case studies and including search results in additional languages.

Xanath Bautista-Villalobos, Eduardo Garcı́a-Frapolli · Hábitat y Sociedad · Mexico

Two community urban gardens in Mexico City were analyzed through the lenses of agroecology, the social and solidarity economy, and social innovation. Working with garden administrators and key participants, the researchers defined participatory indicators and ran workshops to gauge local perceptions of how the gardens function. Both initiatives were viewed positively by their communities, though few residents were actually involved. Most evaluated variables scored satisfactorily, but aspects such as the source and use of water, income distribution within the community, and the creation of communal budgets had not met their objectives.

Nick DeMarsh, Alfonso Morales · Urban agriculture · United States

Focused on cities in the United States, this paper (2024) frames urban agriculture as an opportunity to challenge the status quo of current urban and food systems, discussing the opportunities and challenges that increased urban population and density create for it through Howe and Kaufman's ethical framework of means and ends. Noting the tendency for ethical ends (economic or other outcomes) to preempt consideration of ethical means or processes, it applies this means-and-ends framework to propose three key ideas for framing the ethics of urban agriculture: a place-based historical perspective, a bridge connecting cities and regions, and a nested approach to reimagining healthy socio-ecological systems. It argues that urban agriculture practitioners must understand the history of urban places and agricultural processes both as consequences of national historical processes and in present place-specific contexts and future orientations; that urban agriculture's contribution to an environmentally sustainable future rests on recognizing food production and consumption as an essential part of human life; and that its transformative potential stems from its significant role in the urban and food systems that shape everyday life — while cautioning that this potential does not mean change through urban agriculture is inevitable, since it requires participants and stakeholders to critically examine their own practices and expectations.

Tatiana Hlinka · Journal of Student Research · United States

In New Jersey, 50 food desert areas face the most severe food insecurity across both rural and urban contexts. This study identified nine barriers to implementing urban agriculture initiatives in New Jersey's urban food deserts, using a sequential quantitative analysis combining a survey of food systems professionals with a GIS-based spatial analysis to identify the most prevalent barrier. Working in partnership with New Jersey urban agricultural organizations, the study found that lack of funding was the most commonly cited barrier to expanding urban agriculture initiatives. The GIS-based spatial analysis found that high-priority barriers varied by region, but that all organizations identified funding, or lack of access to funding, as a significant barrier regardless of whether they operated in a low- or high-income neighborhood. The study concludes that policymakers must reevaluate the role of urban agricultural organizations in New Jersey's urban food deserts.

Tiffanie F. Stone, Janette R. Thompson, Emily Zimmerman, Tássia Mattos Brighenti, Matt Liebman · Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems · United States

In the US Corn Belt near Des Moines, Iowa, researchers combined land-use visualization with producer surveys to examine a future scenario supplying 50% of a metropolitan population's dietary needs from local "table food" (fruit, vegetable and grain crops for direct human consumption) by 2050. Surveys were sent to 1,360 row crop and 55 specialty crop producers, yielding 316 and 25 eligible responses respectively. The scenario would require less than 3% of available agricultural land and roughly 130 additional producers, mostly in grain production. Based on producers' stated plans, local production could supply about 25% of residents' fruit, vegetable and grain needs, up from a 2% baseline. Row crop producers ranked food safety regulations as their strongest constraint, specialty producers ranked labor availability, and both groups cited crop insurance and processing facilities as important.